With three weeks remaining before the conference tournament, coach Joel Walton is no longer wondering who will be his starting right outside attacker.
Less than one month after changing positions, outside attacker Dominic Spadavecchio had another career night as the No. 15 Ball State University men's volleyball team defeated IPFW in five games Saturday in Fort Wayne.
"For right now he is definitely in there as the starter," Walton said. "The situation is always changing but for now he is going to start."
Starting his seven consecutive match, Spadavecchio led the Cardinals (15-8, 6-4 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) with a career-high 20 kills. The redshirt freshman also had a career-high 11 digs and a .405 attack percentage - the second highest percentage for Ball State in the win.
Walton said the 6-foot-5-inch Spadavecchio was able to take advantage of IPFW's (12-12, 3-5 MIVA) shorter blockers.
"They were two of their weaker blocks and Dom was having a nice swing the entire night," Walton said.
Spadavecchio also had this career night with backup setter Daniel Penrod making his first collegiate start. As a freshman, Penrod was starting in place of all-conference setter Ethan Pheister, who did not play in the match after violating team rules last week.
Despite some differences with Penrod setting, Spadavecchio said, the setter did a good job connecting with him throughout the match.
"Daniel was setting good balls to me and he was anticipating the one-on-one blocks I was getting," Spadavecchio said.
Spadavecchio said he benefited from IPFW putting one blocker on him because the Mastodons were trying to minimize the offensive production of Ball State's middle attackers.
"A lot of teams haven't been respecting our right side this season," he said. "It's just good to take advantage of that."
Prior to Spadavecchio switching from left outside attacker to right outside attacker, the Cardinals had started Todd Chamberlain, Marcus Imwalle and Eric Schulte in the position. In addition, the last two matches before Spadavecchio made his first start on March 14 against Loyola University, Ball State's right outside attackers had a combined .108 attack percentage.
As the right outside attacker starter, Spadavecchio has broken his career high for kills in a single match three times.
This was Ball State's first match since sweeping last-place Quincy University in a MIVA match March 28 - its longest amount of time off between matches this season. In that match, Spadavecchio set a program record with eight aces in a conference match.
With Spadavecchio making the team as a walk-on in September 2007, Walton said he has constantly improved throughout his time on the team, especially this latest break between matches. During the two-week break, the coach said he worked with Spadavecchio on his approach and got him utilize more cross-court kill attempts.
"He's been a really bright spot for us this year," Walton said.
With this win in the their conference regular season finale, the Cardinals clinched the No. 3 seed in the MIVA Tournament. Ball State will not have another conference match until it plays its MIVA Tournament quarterfinal match - most likely against Quincy on April 24 or April 25 in Worthen Arena.
Winning five of its last six matches, Spadavecchio said, the team is feeling more confident entering the conference tournament.
"We've got a group of guys that are coming together and that can beat anyone when we play as a team," he said.
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